


Breath of Life

by inklingdeco



Category: Moana - Fandom
Genre: Give Maui a boyfriend 2k17, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-16 05:06:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10564236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inklingdeco/pseuds/inklingdeco
Summary: Maui begins to realize how short human lifespans are.I want there to be a sequel to Moana wherein our good boy Maui gets a boyfriend. So, I wrote him one. This is my first time writing for my OC Makani, if you guys like him, I'll write more!





	

**Author's Note:**

> The lovely fen-zone has drawn art of Maui and Makani before, which you can view here!
> 
> http://fen-zole.tumblr.com/post/155401922277/sketch-gift-for-cute-kl3an

"Mortally wounded" was a very dramatic phrase, which is why Maui loved it.

More than anything else, it was because nothing could- or at least, it was very, very hard to- "mortally wound" a demigod. But it had such a kick to it that Maui relished in using the phrase. Scrape on the arm? Mortally wounded. Sprained ankle? Moana, I'm hit, leave me to die! 

It made her laugh, which was always a plus. It made Makani laugh too, which was...more of a plus, for some reason.

Makani wasn't very much like Moana. Him being 25 as compared to...how old was Moana, again? Like 8? Was part of it, he was a little more mature and less hotheaded. 

But that wasn't all of it. Makani was shy and reserved where Moana was bold and foreword, but he was a genuinely selfless and good person. Makani wouldn't yell or hit him with an oar (another mortal blow) when he was frustrated with Maui, instead he would just huff and cross his arms and just stop talking. Which should be a blessing! Maui doesn't have to get his ear chewed off or berated but, somehow it was worse, when it really had no right to be, especially when Maui did NOTHING wrong.

But seeing Makani go from angry to quiet to looking genuinely hurt was too much. Makani didn't lash out, it was like he didn't know how, like he had learned to shut up and sit down and take what's coming to you, even if you don't really deserve to get into an argument about...whatever the last thing it was that lead to Maui taking over steering the canoe that lead them into dangerous water in the first place. 

Despite all evidence to the contrary, Makani was fun. He had a hidden sense of humor that only came around when Maui was acting particularly goofy, an amazing smile, an equally beautiful laugh- 

-that, in any case, no matter WHAT the qualities of those smile and laugh were (beautiful, amazing, made you forget he ever cried, made you want to see it over and over and) would go away in an instant. Because Makani was mortally wounded. 

Maui liked that phrase because he never had to think about the word it was derived from, "mortal." It wasn't really a thing to him. It took a LOT to take Maui down, not that he was immortal, but he could take a lot more than regular humans could, and he hadn't interacted with humans on a personal level until very recently. Even if the ocean had kind of forced him into that first one. 

So, mortality wasn't really ever on his mind. Humans die, it's a thing that happens, sometimes you show up to a village to shower them in riches and maybe make coconuts a thing that exist in the world now (you're welcome,) and then you come back a couple decades later and half of them are gone. It happens! 

Maui liked humans just fine, but as more of a concept. A group of things who were here for a bit, you can make them happy for that bit, then they're gone and new ones show up.

It had never dawned on him that one spear from a Kakamora would be enough to make a human stop existing. To make Makani stop existing. 

They were so small, and Makani was...he wasn't BIG- well, he was bigger than Moana, but not as big as Maui- but he still was...bigger than that. Nothing should have been able to make him stop existing. 

They had escaped the Kakamora ships before Maui had stopped to get Makani off the floor of the canoe, picking him up a little and hearing a hiss escape from between his teeth. There was already a red stain in the wood. 

It was right below his ribs, buried halfway with a cut-off rope still dangling from the end. Did Maui cut it? He didn't remember anything after he heard Makani fall over and slam onto the floor. His hair was in a bun. When did he put his hair up? 

Makani's hand was on his side, pressing onto the area as red flowed from underneath his fingertips.

It was all there, flowing out. His entire existence was flowing out. Maybe Maui had only known him for a few weeks, but everything he had seen and not seen was there; all the times he intentionally made Makani laugh just to see him smile, every shallow, tiny footprint Makani left in the sand, the crease between his eyebrows when he got angry, the way Makani diverted his eyes and blushed when he got nervous, those little pieces of mortality that would just end here. There wouldn't be any more. Humans just...stopped. 

"This wasn't the...heroic death I was hoping I'd get," Makani finally said (finally said? Maybe he had been talking the whole time- it occurred to Maui he didn't even hear the ocean behind them until just a moment ago) with a weak smile. 

Maui didn't know what to say. He couldn't fix him, he would lift up the sky but he couldn't fix one person? He opened and closed his mouth a few times before spitting out, 

"You're not supposed to do this."

Makani opened his eyes a little wider and stared up at Maui, looking confused.  
"Do what? Get on the boat in he first place? Because I know I wasn't supposed to, that-"

"No, die."

The canoe rocked back and forth as the two looked at each other, only the sound of the waves filling in the space. Makani tilted his head a little to the left, before smiling slightly.

"All humans die, Maui. You knew that, right?"

"You're not supposed to die NOW!" Maui said, he wasn't crying he didn't think, but figured this would be a good time to if he wasn't already more confused and scared than sad. He hadn't put together that he was supposed to be sad yet. "You just got here, you've barely been alive!"

"I'm 25, I'm hardly 'new,'" Makani said, turning his head to the side with that same pained smile, staring at the ocean beside them. 

Maui tried to wrap his head around the concept of 25 years being a lot. That was a blink. How did humans get anything done? How did humans do anything? How did humans live like-

Maui's thoughts were interrupted as he felt a hand reach up and lightly (far too lightly, far too weakly,) touch the side of his head, and move down to his jawline. He followed the arm and looked at Makani smiling, his other hand still pressed against the spear in his ribs.

"You look nice with your hair up," he said. He sounded tired. "I can see your face. It's nice."

Maui didn't feel himself lower his face into Makani's chest but felt Makani's tiny, too tiny hand on the back of his head, holding him there as he tried to wrap his head around the concept of crying. 

Makani leaned down a little and their foreheads were together, their noses touching as Makani inhaled slowly through his nose. Maui shut his eyes and took in the sound. 

Maui kept his eyes shut as he heard a few more inhales, and exhales, more than he would expect for someone who shouldn't be doing that anymore, and didn't open his eyes until he felt Makani sitting up and pushing Maui away slightly. 

Maui loosened his grip and followed Makani's eyes down to his ribs, where the spear was out and the wound closing in a circular, swirling motion. Makani's blood stained hand hovered over the skin as, in seconds, it looked like nothing happened. 

Makani looked up at Maui, their bodies still close, mouth agape.

"What did...how did you..."

"How did I- how did YOU?" Maui stared back, incredulously. 

"I'm not the demigod! I'm not magic or whatever- you did something!"

Maui let go and kept staring at the once-was wound for a minute, before brushing it off and looking off to the side.

"Well, I AM pretty amazing; obviously I just did something so incredible even I can't comprehend it." 

Makani rolled his eyes and sat up, Maui watching Makani light touch his rubs out of the corner of his eye while he feigned haughtiness and kept his head turned toward the sea. There was no way he was scared. Makani could just go on thinking Maui really did do something. Did he do something?

Humans are finite, but they are resilient. They are temporary, but they take it in stride. They don't seem to realize the time they have is so small compared to everything else. And if they do, they don't seem to let it bother them.  
Maybe Maui didn't have an eternity to spend with Makani. That just meant he had to make sure the time they did spend together amazing, wonderful, and infinite.


End file.
